“Huh?”
“I am satisfied with the way things are. I cannot have him questioning the acceptability of a brother and sister sharing a room. Do you understand?”
“No, I fear I don’t.” Aiko found herself adopting a slightly strange form of formal speech. “Because... I mean, really! Who even does that?!”
“We do, here in this house. Are you unaware that it is rude to pass judgment on how others live their lives?”
Aiko couldn’t think of a response to that. She certainly did find it strange, but if Yoriko didn’t mind, there wasn’t much she could say. It just left her with a nagging sense of wrongness.
“Now, I believe you require a change of clothes. Very well. I shall lend you some. It will be a new pair, which I have not yet worn. Knowing my brother, he will have neglected to take such a consideration into account.”
“Oh, yeah, he tried to lend me his big sister’s underwear...”
“Now we shall return to the room. You will refrain from mentioning the contents of our discussion to him.”
“R-Right.”
Yoriko had dominated the conversation. Aiko couldn’t do anything but follow her lead.
Yoriko opened the door and re-entered the room.
“What were you two up to out there?” Yuichi asked, looking at them both in confusion.
“Aw, sorry, Big Brother. It was just a bit of girl talk! Right?”
“Huh? R-Right...” Aiko stammered her startled agreement.
“Hmm. Well, that’s cool. Pick out what you’re lending her quickly, okay? She probably feels pretty gross, standing around the way she is.”
“Okaaay!” Yoriko’s attitude had done a total 180. The formal coldness from before had vanished. She seemed like any innocent young girl of her age.
What’s with these siblings?
Aiko stared at her, dumbfounded, as Yoriko went to pick out clothes.
✽✽✽✽✽
Yuichi was waiting at the low table when Aiko came in.
Now that all the blood was washed off and she had changed into Yoriko’s clothing, she looked completely refreshed.
She sat down across from him.
Yoriko had gone downstairs out of consideration, leaving Yuichi and Aiko alone in the room together.
“Okay. Now, please tell me. What made you think I was a vampire? I know you thought it was strange that my wound healed so fast, but why the leap to ‘vampire’? Did you already know what I am? If so, how?”
“You have to promise not to tell anyone. In exchange, I won’t tell anyone about you. Is that okay?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay. The reason I knew you were a vampire... is because one day, out of nowhere, I started seeing labels above people’s heads. They seem to reveal something about the person... and your label said ‘Vampire.’”
“Huh?” Aiko’s jaw fell slack.
Clearly that hadn’t been an answer she’d expected.
“I know you probably don’t believe me, but why would I make something like this up?”
“Well... I guess I’ll believe you for now. So you didn’t hear it from someone else? Nobody else knows?”
“Yeah, I was totally basing it on the label. And I haven’t told anyone else that you’re a vampire. I mentioned that there was a vampire in my class when I told my big sister about my sight, but I didn’t tell her who it was.”
“Oh, okay. That’s good, then... Just to be clear, it’s a secret, okay? Don’t tell anyone.” Aiko looked reassured, despite giving the warning.
“I won’t tell anyone. I really don’t like trouble.”
“But... then why did you save me, if you don’t like trouble?”
“You can’t just abandon someone who’s injured, you know? Speaking of which, why was that guy even after you, anyway?”
“I’m not sure myself... I found a letter in my shoe cubby. It said, ‘I want to talk to you about something important.’ It was from a guy named Hiromichi Rokuhara in Class 2-A. I wasn’t sure how to take being invited out by someone I’d never met before, but he is an upperclassman, so it seemed rude not to go. But when I saw him out in the courtyard, the sky suddenly got dark, and those skeleton things came after me.”
“Who was that guy? What was he trying to do?”
“He called me a monster. He said he was going to exterminate me...” Aiko’s voice turned hollow as she remembered the terror of that moment.
“...Hey, does that mean this Rokuhara guy knows what you are, too?”
“I swear, I haven’t done anything to tip anyone off! I’m almost exactly like a human! Sometimes even I forget I’m a vampire!”
“His label was ‘Apprentice Monster Hunter.’ You know anything about that? Like, maybe vampire hunters have the power to see your true identity.”
“I’ve heard people like that exist, but I don’t think they’ve ever come after our family, so it can’t be that easy to see through.”
“But the fact of the matter is, a monster hunter has his sights on you. You’ll have to be careful from now on.”
“...What should I do? Dad’s gonna be really mad if he finds out someone knows what I am.”
Aiko looked despondent. Her father must be a scary guy.
“But if he’s a monster hunter, he probably wouldn’t want to get humans involved. That means you want to stay in crowds as much as possible, I think.”
“You think he won’t do anything if there are humans around?”
“I think so. I bet that’s the reason he ran away after I showed up.”
“But I really don’t understand... Even if I am a vampire, it would still cause a huge commotion if I died...”
Yuichi agreed on that one. Aiko wasn’t just a monster lurking in the shadows. If she died or went missing, it would be big news.
“So, I can’t figure out what was going through his head. But either way...” Yuichi leaned forward over the table a little.
“...I’ll still keep your secret, Noro. In exchange... will you be my confidant? I’ve got a lot on my mind, with my sight the way it is. You know?”
Yuichi gazed earnestly into Aiko’s eyes. He needed a confidant that would keep his secrets. An incognito vampire would be perfect for the job.
“Okay. You got me out of a pretty bad scrape back there, so it’s the least I can do. I can’t do much more than listen, though.”
“You mean it? Wow, I thought you’d say no! Which of course I’d be okay with, but still... Man, that’s so great. You’re such a nice person, Noro!”
“Huh? A-Am I, really?” His earnest flattery had caused her cheeks to turn pink. Perhaps she enjoyed it.
“Anyway. To cut to the chase, there’s one major thing on my mind.”
“Right.”
“There’s a serial killer in our class.”
“Huh?”
“She knows that I know who she is.”
“Huh?!”
“Carrying the burden by myself all this time has been so hard, I’ve been looking for someone to confide in. Anyway, the person is—”
“Wait! I don’t want to know! Don’t say any more!” Aiko shouted. This didn’t seem to be where she expected the subject to lead at all.
“It’s Natsuki Takeuchi.”
Aiko slumped in defeat for a moment, but immediately bounced back, rising to her feet to give him a piece of her mind. “What the heck?! That’s horrible! I didn’t think that was what you’d want to talk about!”
“You said you’d hear me out! That’s the thing that’s really been worrying me, so what else was I going to talk about? She said that if word got out, she’d kill everyone in the school! There’s no way I can keep something like that all on myself!” Yuichi fired back. He was uncowed by her vehemence.
“Hey! Keep it down!” she hissed. “You don’t want anyone to find out, right?”
“Oh... right. Um, sorry.” Yuichi’s apology was sincere. He really had gone too far.
Aiko didn’t seem to be able to maintain h
er anger in the face of that. Slowly, she sat down.
“...Fine. I did say I’d listen, after all. And there’s no putting the cat back in the bag. Ah! Just don’t tell me about anyone else unless you have to, okay? I don’t want to hear more than that!”
“Thanks. So, anyway... you said you couldn’t do much more than listen, but I still figured I would ask. Can you fight, Noro?”
“Huh? Fight?”
“You know, knowing you had some kind of vampire power that could take down a serial killer would be a huge load off my mind.”
Vampires in fiction tended to be powerful creatures, after all. If she had any of that, it could make her a valuable ally in combat.
“No way. I’m really not all that different from a human. All I do is heal a little faster.”
“Huh? You can’t turn into a bat or mist or make more of your kind by sucking their blood?”
“Nope. Oh, and while we’re at it: I’m visible in mirrors, I can cross running water, and I can enter people’s houses without being invited.”
“How exactly are you a vampire?”
“It’s not like I asked to be a vampire!”
“Good point. Sorry.”
“Anyway, if I were that good, I’d just protect my secret by sucking your blood and making you my thrall. Did you even consider that?”
“Ah.” Yuichi hadn’t considered that, no. “I guess you just didn’t seem like the dangerous type. Takeuchi has kind of a threatening aura about her... Though that may be my own bias speaking.” The first thing he’d noticed about her was her serial killer label, and she’d threatened him immediately after that. He couldn’t view her objectively. Everything she did seemed suspicious to him.
“Well, that’s okay. Anyway, I don’t have any of the typical vampire powers or weak points. If I did, I wouldn’t be able to go to school.”
“But you can’t stand sutras and stuff, right? Doesn’t that make things tough for you?”
“Not at all. I mean, I don’t really run into much Buddhist stuff in my day-to-day life. And I can stand the sutras as long as I steel myself.”
That wasn’t what he’d expected at all, and maybe that showed through on his face. Aiko’s manner turned defensive.
“You don’t seem to believe me. Look, I’m Japanese, so I don’t care about crosses, which is why they’re not a weak point for me. Crosses and holy water only work if the vampire believes they’re sacred. So those only work on vampires from Christian cultures.”
“Is that how that works?”
“Yeah. So an atheist vampire wouldn’t have any religious weaknesses, see?”
“Huh. So wouldn’t it be to all vampires’ benefit not to believe in a god?”
“My grandfather’s French. Apparently people over there can’t imagine being atheists.”
“Ah, that explains that.”
“Explains what?”
“You seemed kind of cute in a French sort of way. I guess it’s because of your grandfather.” Being a quarter French would explain it.
“Huh? Um, well, er... A-Anyway, like I said, I hardly have any vampire powers at all! Um, though apparently feelings of guilt play a big role in the way the powers work!”
Aiko was clearly flustered, but Yuichi didn’t mind. He spoke up. “That’s not what I was expecting... Hey, you said you don’t suck blood, right?”
“Ugh, do you really have to ask?”
“Huh? Should I not have? You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.”
“Well, it is a little awkward, but... I actually cook the blood up and mix it into my food. Fresh blood is gross and stinky. I can’t do it.”
“And it’s human blood?”
“Yeah. But I don’t attack people or anything. We use blood drawn for transfusions. Our family runs a hospital, see. You know Noro General Hospital?”
“Huh? That’s your family’s hospital?” Noro General Hospital. It was the central hospital of the region. Everybody knew it. It was known as an enormous hospital with over a thousand beds.
“Yes.”
“And everyone in your family is a vampire?”
“Yeah. It’s hereditary.”
It sounded like she didn’t have any combat skills. Too bad. If any fighting was going to happen, Yuichi was going to have to do it himself.
He’d finally found an ally, but he was still far from resolving anything.
✽✽✽✽✽
Before that day, Aiko had barely even noticed the boy named Yuichi.
He had a handful of male friends he spoke to in class, and he’d never seemed interested in getting to know anyone other than them. Aiko couldn’t ever remember even speaking to him.
He was fairly good-looking, so the girls talked about him a fair amount, but he seemed cold and aloof, which gave others a bad impression of him. Because of that, the girls’ interest in him had dwindled.
But talking to him today was helping her realize why he acted that way. He was seeing all kinds of bizarre labels over people’s heads. He was evasive because he was afraid of getting involved in someone else’s circumstances. Now that they were talking, he didn’t seem cold at all. He spoke with candor and openness about whatever was on his mind.
Learning that Aiko was a vampire didn’t frighten him, and he didn’t find her strange. He spoke to her like he would anyone else. Aiko had always been a little ashamed of her nature, so seeing Yuichi accept it so naturally made her feel a little better about herself.
He is a bit strange, though. Especially in the big picture, his relationship with his sisters...
Even if they were family, she couldn’t understand how nonplussed he was about sharing a room with a girl in middle school.
And outing Takeuchi’s secret like that was pretty cruel.
But she could let a few little oddities slide when it came to the man to whom she owed her life. Aiko couldn’t offer him much, so being his confidant felt like the least she could do.
“Hey. I know I’ve confided a lot in you, but if you have any problems, you can talk to me, too. Does being a vampire make any trouble for you?” Yuichi inquired, interrupting Aiko’s thoughts.
Maybe he was feeling sorry about pushing the Natsuki thing on her.
“Trouble from being a vampire? It doesn’t really make trouble for me in my daily life. If there’s anything that’s worrying me, it’s...” Aiko stopped, remembering. She was having one small problem, though she wasn’t sure if she should confide in Yuichi.
“What is it?”
“It’s about my big brother... Um, are you familiar with middle school syndrome?”
“...Yeah, I’ve had some experience with it.” Yuichi winced and smiled.
“My big brother has it.”
“Everyone’s got hobbies, right? As long as he’s not making trouble for people...”
“I think... he might start making trouble, though. He talks about being from an ancient clan that controlled the power of darkness, and being a true vampire... and conquering the world and stuff.”
“Oh, that kind of middle school syndrome?” Yuichi looked surprised.
“Huh? What do you mean, ‘that kind’?”
Were there multiple types of middle school syndrome? Aiko had only learned the term recently herself.
“...Oh, there are lots of kinds of middle school syndrome. The term was originally used to refer to how kids in their second year of middle school suddenly tried to act all mature. But it branched out into a few different meanings from there. Lately, it’s come to refer to people who believe they have secret powers or something. That’s what you’re talking about, right?”
“Yeah. I wouldn’t go so far as to say I want to make him normal again, or anything like that. But I do want to make sure he doesn’t make any trouble for anyone.”
If he did make any trouble, the family elders would act to rein in the situation, and then her brother would probably get punished. Of course, he’d be getting what he deserved, but she would still prefer to s
top him before it got to that point.
“Got it. I’ll help you figure out what to do about your brother,” Yuichi said forcefully.
“Okay! Then it’s a deal! I’ll help you with your sight, and you help me with my brother. Right?” Aiko offered her hand out to Yuichi.
“Huh? What?”
“We shake hands now! That’s how a contract works, right?”
“What are we, Americans?” Even so, Yuichi took her hand. Aiko found it rough and strong.
“And... I know it’s a bit late, but I should still say it. Thank you for saving me.” Aiko smiled brightly.
Chapter 4: Familiars and Barriers and Auras and Monsters and a Monster Hunter Society
It was the next day.
Yuichi had walked to school with Aiko. They still weren’t sure why Aiko had been attacked, so Yuichi was on his guard for a repeat of last time. Of course, he expected nothing was going to happen in the classroom with so many people around, and sure enough, the morning classes passed without incident.
Lunchtime rolled around.
Yuichi was eating with Shota when Aiko approached them. She casually pulled up an empty seat nearby, sat down, and opened up her lunch box.
Yuichi’s desk was starting to feel a little crowded.
“Huh? Noro?” Shota said in surprise. Her approach had apparently been completely unexpected. The other boys around them seemed shocked, too. They were most likely thinking the same thing.
“What is it, Noro?” Yuichi asked.
Aiko leaned over to whisper in Yuichi’s ear. “We need to act like friends, or it won’t seem natural that we’re hanging out all the time, right?”
“Huh, you think?” Yuichi responded in a whisper.
He couldn’t figure out what was so bad about it not looking natural. Obviously, they’d have to be spending time together so that Aiko wouldn’t have to be alone, but he couldn’t figure out why it had to seem natural for them to do that.
“Well, aren’t you two nice and cozy!” Shota said. He looked suspiciously at the two of them, sitting close and and whispering to each other.
“Ah, she wants to eat lunch with us,” Yuichi answered. “Is that okay?”
The World's Strongest Little Brother Page 5